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The Magic School Bus Rides Again


Clappy

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2 hours ago, 4EverGreen said:

"Dr. Who, is CONSTANTLY replaced with actors who act nothing LIKE each other, nobody bats an eye. 

You've clearly not been following the latest Doctor.

I'm by no means a Dr. Who expert but if they're able to change the Doctor so much with nobody complaining then clearly the doctor changing is an integral part to the show. There's no reason for them to replace Ms. Frizzle with someone else. What is the point when this is clearly done to cash off of brand recognition?

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7 hours ago, 4EverGreen said:

To paraphrase Heath Ledger as The Joker from "The Dark Knight", : "Dr. Who, is CONSTANTLY replaced with actors who act nothing LIKE each other, nobody bats an eye. Ms. Frizzle is replaced ONCE by an actress who acts nothing like the original, and everybody loses their MINDS!!!!" o.o Why don't you actually WATCH the special before you make a judgment, okay?

so what the hell is this topic about then

"oh look this video sure does exist"

the point of a trailer is to showcase the thing being shown, guy

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11 hours ago, 4EverGreen said:

To paraphrase Heath Ledger as The Joker from "The Dark Knight", : "Dr. Who, is CONSTANTLY replaced with actors who act nothing LIKE each other, nobody bats an eye. Ms. Frizzle is replaced ONCE by an actress who acts nothing like the original, and everybody loses their MINDS!!!!" o.o Why don't you actually WATCH the special before you make a judgment, okay?

It's pretty much rule of thumb for the internet to hate on a new character that suddenly gets inserted into the picture or even replaces someone - whether or not there's a good reason for it. Don't believe me? Just ask the female Ghostbusters, Joe, Dil, Kimi, Poof, Sparky, Chloe, any newer cast member of Degrassi Next Gen, any of Ash's companions that isn't Misty or Brock, Joseph Quinn, etc. etc.

Still not convinced? The 13th Doctor was subject of hate upon being announced...and I'm just going to leave it there.

Needless to say, I'm not bothered by the hate that the "new Frizzle" is receiving. From my perspective, it was bound to happen. I'm not a big fan of the new Frizzle, but I'll be fair and say that I'm not jumping the gun to call the new Frizzle a bad character. I get that she's not as interesting or dynamic as the original Frizzle, but it's not like she poisoned the water supply, burned our crops, and delivered a plague onto peoples' houses.

Of all things, I'm gonna go as far to defend the animation a little bit. It's not crisp and clean, but I can at least see some effort. The stiff animation is not great, but it's not terrible either.

Edited by Steel Sponge
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1 hour ago, Steel Sponge said:

Needless to say, I'm not bothered by the hate that the "new Frizzle" is receiving. From my perspective, it was bound to happen. I'm not a big fan of the new Frizzle, but I'll be fair and say that I'm not jumping the gun to call the new Frizzle a bad character. I get that she's not as interesting or dynamic as the original Frizzle, but it's not like she poisoned the water supply, burned our crops, and delivered a plague onto peoples' houses.

Of all things, I'm gonna go as far to defend the animation a little bit. It's not crisp and clean, but I can at least see some effort. The stiff animation is not great, but it's not terrible either.

Sorry but I had to nitpick this because the way this is worded is somewhat contradicting the point.  Isn't calling the new Frizzle not as interesting or dynamic pretty much jumping the gun because you're going off of a minute something long trailer?  Not a single episode has aired yet to really judge anything except what was shown in the trailer not an entire character's complete being. :P 

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13 hours ago, 4EverGreen said:

To paraphrase Heath Ledger as The Joker from "The Dark Knight", : "Dr. Who, is CONSTANTLY replaced with actors who act nothing LIKE each other, nobody bats an eye. Ms. Frizzle is replaced ONCE by an actress who acts nothing like the original, and everybody loses their MINDS!!!!" o.o Why don't you actually WATCH the special before you make a judgment, okay?

The reason regeneration exists in Doctor Who is because William Hartnell was getting old but they wanted to keep the show going, and the easiest way to do that was to just introduce a mechanic that allowed them to switch actors whenever they felt like it - and if each actor acted the same exact way then the show would've gotten boring and stale because then you have a character that doesn't have any sort of development or any kind of layers to him(/her). Each actor brings something new to the role - though there is a consistency in the writing (and some of the performance) in order to keep the Doctor, at his(/her) core relatively the same character. That's part of the draw of regeneration, and the show, in general.

Cartoons do not age. Logistically, there's no good reason why they needed to introduce a new, younger (and, frankly/weirdly/confusingly, hotter) Frizzle, when they're clearly capable of drawing the original design. A more applicable use of that quote would've been if they recast the voice actor. The Doctor, at his(/her) core is still the same person, but there's new dimensions brought on by each actor(/actress). Keeping Ms. Frizzle's character design but changing her voice actor would've been the same thing. You still have the original Frizz, but you have a different person giving their new take on the character. Not just a completely new character in general, most likely made for the sole purpose of cashing in on Kate McKinnon while she's still the new hotness (even though she easily could've just been the new voice actress for Ms. Frizzle, but whatever). When Powerpuff Girls rebooted the writers didn't introduce some weird plot where the Professor decided to recreate the original experiment to try to make more heroes for the world and then retire Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup by having them fight crime elsewhere - they just kept the Powerpuff Girls the same, because there's literally no reason not to because they are the Powerpuff Girls; the reboot of Ducktales doesn't start with Donald shipping Huey, Louie, and Dewey off to boarding school to make room for a new trio of nephews he just found out he had, because they are Ducktales.

 

Aside from all that, animation looks like lazy Flash tweening and the designs look basic. Not my favorite thing in the world, because in my opinion it speaks to the level of care that's being put into the show. If they don't care enough to put the time into properly animating an animated show (or giving it the budget for the animators to do so), then why would they care about anything else about it? The voice acting seemed really lazy too. McKinnon sounded super bored. Unless they do some new topics that the original didn't, there's no real reason for this to have been made (maybe it's so they can make an app and cash-in on that, who knows). It doesn't look like it's catering to the demographic of people that would be nostalgic about it, and teachers can just show kids the old one if they want them to learn about a given topic (which I imagine they'll still do, unless schools are now getting a budget for Netflix).

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2 hours ago, Steel Sponge said:

It's pretty much rule of thumb for the internet to hate on a new character that suddenly gets inserted into the picture or even replaces someone - whether or not there's a good reason for it. Don't believe me? Just ask the female Ghostbusters, Joe, Dil, Kimi, Poof, Sparky, Chloe, any newer cast member of Degrassi Next Gen, any of Ash's companions that isn't Misty or Brock, Joseph Quinn, etc. etc.

lmao u mad bro

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1 hour ago, Clappy said:

Sorry but I had to nitpick this because the way this is worded is somewhat contradicting the point.  Isn't calling the new Frizzle not as interesting or dynamic pretty much jumping the gun because you're going off of a minute something long trailer?  Not a single episode has aired yet to really judge anything except what was shown in the trailer not an entire character's complete being. :P 

The point I was trying to make was that the preview for the reboot and the new character was getting too much hate than they deserved, but you made the point about how it was too early to judge anyways when the show hasn't come out yet, but I got sidetracked on the reactions.

8 minutes ago, Wumbo said:

lmao u mad bro

I never said I was mad about the reactions towards the characters I mentioned in my previous comment, including the ones towards Fiona Frizzle. I was pointing out that such characters are subject to immediate negative reactions and that it shouldn't be so surprising, but I'll admit, I got sidetracked before I realized 4Ever had made the same point.

Edited by Steel Sponge
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16 hours ago, Sunshine Banjo Face said:

You've clearly not been following the latest Doctor.

I'm by no means a Dr. Who expert but if they're able to change the Doctor so much with nobody complaining then clearly the doctor changing is an integral part to the show. There's no reason for them to replace Ms. Frizzle with someone else. What is the point when this is clearly done to cash off of brand recognition?

I was speaking GENERALLY! o.o It's not like I'm an encyclopedia of every single incarnation of "Dr. Who." :rolleyes:

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1 hour ago, 4EverGreen said:

I was speaking GENERALLY! o.o It's not like I'm an encyclopedia of every single incarnation of "Dr. Who." :rolleyes:

Then I think you probably should've used a different quote to illustrate your point because regeneration isn't just a superficial change and it's been an established precedent for 50+ years. It's a bit different than creating a brand new lead character for no real reason. Remember in Blue's Clues when Steve left for college and then Joe took over and then everyone got super pissed because we loved Steve and Joe was a stupid-face? This is kind of like that (though not totally because switching main characters in live action is different than in cartoons and I know I said that in my previous post, but I can't think of a cartoon off the top of my head that's done this before).

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On 9/8/2017 at 6:42 PM, terminoob said:

Then I think you probably should've used a different quote to illustrate your point because regeneration isn't just a superficial change and it's been an established precedent for 50+ years. It's a bit different than creating a brand new lead character for no real reason. Remember in Blue's Clues when Steve left for college and then Joe took over and then everyone got super pissed because we loved Steve and Joe was a stupid-face? This is kind of like that (though not totally because switching main characters in live action is different than in cartoons and I know I said that in my previous post, but I can't think of a cartoon off the top of my head that's done this before).

Steve left because his actor, Steven Burns, wanted to leave. He had just grown tired of working on the show and Nick understandably wanted to keep it going because it was still immensely popular. One thing that needs to be pointed out that many seem to gloss over with changes with characters in cartoons compared to live-action shows is voice actors. The rationale behind this change could be Lily Tomlin just not wanting to reprise her role and the makers of the reboot just thinking, "No one can replace Lily Tomlin as the old Mrs. Frizzle, so let's have a new voice actor voice a new Mrs. Frizzle". It happened with Ernest Borgnine on Spongebob, where they just completely stopped doing Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy episodes after he passed away because, "No one could replace Ernest.". It's possible that's not what happened here, but it shows something.

Also, if you're looking for cartoons that have done that, toy-promotion shows, bruh. Hasbro probably has the best example of that with how they killed Optimus Prime and replaced him with Rodimus Prime in Transformers. And if anime counts, Beyblade and Yu-Gi-Oh! always change the main character cast with each new generation.

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1 hour ago, Metal Snake said:

Steve left because his actor, Steven Burns, wanted to leave. He had just grown tired of working on the show and Nick understandably wanted to keep it going because it was still immensely popular. One thing that needs to be pointed out that many seem to gloss over with changes with characters in cartoons compared to live-action shows is voice actors. The rationale behind this change could be Lily Tomlin just not wanting to reprise her role and the makers of the reboot just thinking, "No one can replace Lily Tomlin as the old Mrs. Frizzle, so let's have a new voice actor voice a new Mrs. Frizzle". It happened with Ernest Borgnine on Spongebob, where they just completely stopped doing Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy episodes after he passed away because, "No one could replace Ernest.". It's possible that's not what happened here, but it shows something.

Also, if you're looking for cartoons that have done that, toy-promotion shows, bruh. Hasbro probably has the best example of that with how they killed Optimus Prime and replaced him with Rodimus Prime in Transformers. And if anime counts, Beyblade and Yu-Gi-Oh! always change the main character cast with each new generation.

Yeah, I know Steve wanted to leave (to pursue music, I think? Or other things, I know he did music after the fact though) - I said that wasn't even that apt of a comparison and acknowledged how different live-action and cartoons are, but it's a better comparison than Doctor Who where replacing actors is a staple of the show (much like the toy-promotion shows you mentioned, though obviously not in the same capacity or for the same reason). I mentioned voice actors in my original post as well (and how that would be more applicable to this situation than the changing of actors, because 4EverGreen mentioned no one caring about Doctor Who constantly going through actors); if they don't want to replace her then that's one thing I guess, but it's not like this is a straight-up continuation of the old show (as in: this isn't being marketed as a new season of Magic School Bus) or even really pandering to the demographic of people that grew up with it. It's a weird sort of reboot/spin-off deal and not wanting to replace the voice actor just feels odd because none of the kids are really gonna care since they didn't grow up with Ms. Frizzle and teenagers/young adults aren't exactly being factored into the equation with that so it's not like the creators are gonna care what we think; I guess it's a bit like Mermaid Man and Ernest Borgnine, but Spongebob is also still airing and it's not like Borgnine just didn't want to reprise his role - it was a classy move done out of respect for the actor (which they most certainly did not have to do because Mermaid Man is not the main character). If Spongebob had been off the air and came back as "Spongebob: Under Sea Adventures!" or something like that, then I wouldn't put it past them to have recast Mermaid Man (and again, he's not the main character; replacing him isn't the biggest deal in the world because he's not the focal point). Take another example I used in my original post - the Powerpuff Girls got recast no problem (if I'm remembering right the original actresses weren't even consulted about coming back, but I could be wrong on that) but the designs are still basically the same. Maybe it's a matter of Tomlin not wanting to do it and them making a new character out of respect because they didn't want to recast, maybe it's them making a new character because they want to be different, I don't know. It's just a weird move in my opinion, especially because Kate McKinnon is known for being zany and could've easily been a dynamite Ms. Frizzle.

As for toy-promotion shows: I was trying to stay away from them just because of how obvious they were. My mind immediately jumped to Pokemon, but I thought "wait that doesn't count because they need to promote a game" and with this they aren't exactly promoting anything (and anything they could be promoting would probably be received better if it had Ms. Frizzle on it because it'd catch the eyes of people who grew up with the show and now if those same people see that product they'll go write a Buzzfeed article about how "you won't BELIEVE which 90s childhood hero of yours just got replaced" or something). I was trying to think more along the lines of a regular cartoon that mostly stands on its own.

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2 hours ago, terminoob said:

Yeah, I know Steve wanted to leave (to pursue music, I think? Or other things, I know he did music after the fact though) - I said that wasn't even that apt of a comparison and acknowledged how different live-action and cartoons are, but it's a better comparison than Doctor Who where replacing actors is a staple of the show (much like the toy-promotion shows you mentioned, though obviously not in the same capacity or for the same reason). I mentioned voice actors in my original post as well (and how that would be more applicable to this situation than the changing of actors, because 4EverGreen mentioned no one caring about Doctor Who constantly going through actors); if they don't want to replace her then that's one thing I guess, but it's not like this is a straight-up continuation of the old show (as in: this isn't being marketed as a new season of Magic School Bus) or even really pandering to the demographic of people that grew up with it. It's a weird sort of reboot/spin-off deal and not wanting to replace the voice actor just feels odd because none of the kids are really gonna care since they didn't grow up with Ms. Frizzle and teenagers/young adults aren't exactly being factored into the equation with that so it's not like the creators are gonna care what we think; I guess it's a bit like Mermaid Man and Ernest Borgnine, but Spongebob is also still airing and it's not like Borgnine just didn't want to reprise his role - it was a classy move done out of respect for the actor (which they most certainly did not have to do because Mermaid Man is not the main character). If Spongebob had been off the air and came back as "Spongebob: Under Sea Adventures!" or something like that, then I wouldn't put it past them to have recast Mermaid Man (and again, he's not the main character; replacing him isn't the biggest deal in the world because he's not the focal point). Take another example I used in my original post - the Powerpuff Girls got recast no problem (if I'm remembering right the original actresses weren't even consulted about coming back, but I could be wrong on that) but the designs are still basically the same. Maybe it's a matter of Tomlin not wanting to do it and them making a new character out of respect because they didn't want to recast, maybe it's them making a new character because they want to be different, I don't know. It's just a weird move in my opinion, especially because Kate McKinnon is known for being zany and could've easily been a dynamite Ms. Frizzle.

As for toy-promotion shows: I was trying to stay away from them just because of how obvious they were. My mind immediately jumped to Pokemon, but I thought "wait that doesn't count because they need to promote a game" and with this they aren't exactly promoting anything (and anything they could be promoting would probably be received better if it had Ms. Frizzle on it because it'd catch the eyes of people who grew up with the show and now if those same people see that product they'll go write a Buzzfeed article about how "you won't BELIEVE which 90s childhood hero of yours just got replaced" or something). I was trying to think more along the lines of a regular cartoon that mostly stands on its own.

About Steven Burns moving on to music (which he did do), he debunked that as the reason himself in an interview, saying that the real reason was just that he "didn't want to spend his entire career as a children's show host". I also know very well that they were trying to be respectful to Ernest, but they also did that at the cost of upsetting fans of the MM & BB episodes. You can't please everyone, so stuff like that is always a massive gray area.

I would've gone for Pokemon...had they not still be using Ash as the main protagonist despite it always being a different, interchangeable protagonist with each game. <_< Unless toys of him are really that popular, I don't really see the reason to keep using him when he's not even in the damn game, but that's a completely different topic for another day. Actually, no, it still relates to what I'm trying to say in saying that toy-promotion shows still count, because it all depends on what decisions are being made behind the scenes if the lead characters get replaced or not. Not to mention that marketing merchandise is even a thing with shows that are not made to promote toys. Look no further than some of the decisions Cartoon Network has made regarding toy promotion.

If you really want to stand your ground on toy-promoting shows not counting, fine, Family Guy and South Park. I know they brought Brian and Kenny back, but they replaced Diane and Principal Victoria for good.

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49 minutes ago, 4EverGreen said:

WOAH!!!! o.o We're REALLY getting off on a tangent HERE! Can we focus it back on the Netflix special like we're supposed to?

4Ever, as per usual, is the voice of reason.

There is only one Ash Ketchum, and his character is not interchangeable every region. And contrary to popular belief, the anime has its own creative direction.

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10 hours ago, 4EverGreen said:

WOAH!!!! o.o We're REALLY getting off on a tangent HERE! Can we focus it back on the Netflix special like we're supposed to?

terminoob and i were fighting

9 hours ago, Hayden said:

4Ever, as per usual, is the voice of reason.

There is only one Ash Ketchum, and his character is not interchangeable every region. And contrary to popular belief, the anime has its own creative direction.

There is one replaceable Ash Ketchum and his character arc can be concluded at the end of any region instead of having to be reset. There's no reason they should be unable to start a new generation with a new character if the games can do it. But agree to disagree because...

16 hours ago, Metal Snake said:

that's a completely different topic for another day.

...yeah.

hayden and i were fighting

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10 hours ago, 4EverGreen said:

WOAH!!!! o.o We're REALLY getting off on a tangent HERE! Can we focus it back on the Netflix special like we're supposed to?

yeah sure i love discussing nothing because apparently we're not supposed to pre-judge stuff

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